The World After Leaving the Hero’s Party

Chapter 14 – “No Need” (1)

Normally, traveling to the battlefield required riding a carriage northward and enduring several days of travel. Even General Leoden had to move that way when he couldn’t use Claire’s portal.

But for me, it was different.

“Let’s see…”

Sword, staff, dagger, lute, and… everything else… equipment…

What a ridiculous amount.

As a Sage, I could use the skills of every profession and equip gear from any class.

However, there were limits to what I could carry. After all, no matter how great a Sage I was, I didn’t have multiple arms.

Even after narrowing it down to only the essentials, the gear still covered my entire bed.

“Ugh…”

But I couldn’t afford to leave anything behind—not when I was heading to the battlefield.

After painstakingly packing my things, I looked out the window.

The garden I’d monopolized for the past few days was now draped in quiet darkness.

Goodbye, for now.

Gazing at the scenery, I imbued my ring with mana. At that moment, a dark blue aura enveloped me, and—

“Medic! Medic!”

“Damn it! Is there no priest here?! Hurry!”

“Argh! My arm! My arm!”

—I arrived on the battlefield, filled with the stench of blood.

Scanning my surroundings, I noticed a soldier writhing in pain, unable to receive treatment due to the absence of a priest. I aimed my staff at him.

“Heal.”

“Huh…?”

Although I wasn’t as skilled as a professional priest, the healing spell was effective enough to ease his suffering. The soldier regained his composure, and one of the men supporting him, a massive werewolf with scruffy black fur, gave me a look of admiration.

It was General Leoden’s lieutenant.

“Sage!”

“It’s been a while.”

“I didn’t expect you so soon! Ah, but you just arrived, and already…”

“It’s fine.”

Setting my staff aside, I pulled out the Divine Mark from my belongings. The priests who had been tirelessly treating the wounded looked visibly exhausted.

I exchanged a brief nod with a familiar face among them before raising the Divine Mark.

This was a wide-area healing ability only available to High Priests and Sages.

‘Sanctuary’ was activated.

—Woooooong…

The light that shot up to the sky spread outward like a veil. Those within its glow began to heal, and the lieutenant’s expression brightened with relief.

“This should take care of the immediate treatment.”

“Thank you… For doing this as soon as you arrived…”

“It’s not like I’m going to be fighting on the front lines. Let’s go.”

“Excuse me? Oh, yes. Right away. I’ll escort you to the command tent.”

The lieutenant led me to a tent containing a map of the battlefield. He pointed to a specific area marked with a white circle and began explaining in a somber tone.

“From here to here, new monsters that we’ve never seen before have begun appearing.”

“What kind?”

“There’s a variety, but they all share some common traits: pale skin and formidable defense. Do you know anything about them?”

“Hmm…”

Of course I did.

They were the byproducts of the Pale Moon event performed by the Church of the White Moon. The ones that failed to become the Pale Moon itself.

“How have you been dealing with them so far?”

“That’s… well… we’ve been relying entirely on the Hero’s Party.”

These failures weren’t like ordinary monsters; specific methods were needed to defeat them.

The first method was borrowing the power of the Red Moon—either by using the bracelet I carried or by fighting them during nights when the Red Moon was visible.

The other option was overwhelming force—ignoring their patterns and simply overpowering them with sheer strength.

There were other methods, but these were the easiest.

“Have you fought them at night?”

“At night? We’ve had a few battles during nighttime, but we didn’t notice much of a difference.”

“Was there anything unusual in the surroundings?”

“Unusual…?”

“Structures, for example. Small altars or something similar.”

“Altars… would stone piles count?”

“Yes.”

“…Now that you mention it… yes, there were some.”

It would have been hard to spot such small objects during the limited visibility of the night, but the lieutenant must have noticed them thanks to the heightened senses of a werewolf.

After hearing his detailed explanation of the night time battles, I shared the solution.

“Those altars are granting the monsters the power of the Pale Moon. During battle, assign a couple of people to search for and destroy them. Doing so will weaken the power of the Pale Moon, making it vulnerable to the Red Moon. And…”

“And?”

“The rest… I’ll explain as we fight.”

Even if the power of the Pale Moon was removed, the monsters wouldn’t crumble with a single touch. They were still dangerous. However, they wouldn’t be invincible, so the rest could be dealt with during combat.

“Thank you! As expected of the Sage!”

“It’s nothing extraordinary. Anyone could figure it out with a bit of attention. Let’s plan an attack tonight.”

“Understood. And, um… regarding tonight’s sortie, how should we handle the team composition?”

“You mean the Hero’s Party?”

“Yes. They’re the strongest on the battlefield right now, so I was wondering if we should include them in your support team…”

The lieutenant hesitated, carefully gauging my reaction. I shook my head.

There was no need to drag them into this.

“Just assign me some knights, soldiers, and one or two priests.”

That would be more than enough.

For now, I decided to use this command tent as my base. It was quite luxurious, and the lieutenant suggested I get plenty of rest before the operation.

But I had no intention of idling.

Even though I’d achieved the Healer of the Moon title, there were still other accomplishments left to pursue.

Leaving the tent, I headed toward the area with the most injured soldiers. Some of them greeted me enthusiastically.

“Sage!”

“Ah, thank you for earlier!”

“It was nothing. By the way, do you know where I can repair my equipment?”

“Equipment? Ah… over there.”

At the makeshift forge set up in the camp, several blacksmiths were hard at work repairing gear. But there didn’t seem to be enough of them to handle all the damaged weapons and armor from fighting the monsters’ tough shells and hides.

“Thank you.”

“It’s an honor!”

I casually nodded back at the grateful soldier and approached the forge. The exhausted blacksmiths, their faces haggard, were sharpening blades with weary hands.

“Need some help?”

“Huh? Who…? Oh, Sage?”

“It’s been a while, Dex.”

One of the blacksmiths was someone I knew. He was a man I had relied on quite a bit during the progression of the main story.